The December 2008 archives contain film reviews that were originally written in 2007. I'm trying out a new web page format and am revamping the first part of the page. If you want to see older film reviews you can go to the OLD ARCHIVES. Thanks.
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I saw this film with "J" at iMax. About a year ago, the Mini-ster and I went to see Superman Returns at iMax and found the whole 3-D experience to be distracting more than anything else. Who knows, maybe it was because the film as a whole was thoroughly disappointing but I walked out of Superman Returns feeling as if I had wasted two hours of my life. Not so with Phoenix. I think part of it may have been that there was just one 20-minute sequence in which you had to wear the 3-D glasses. With Superman Returns, there were three short sequences. I'm not very big on modern video games. Perhaps it's just a sign of my age but I definitely prefer the old-school, classics especially Ms. Pac Man. Of course, a simple love of video games would never have compelled me to see a documentary about a bunch of Donkey Kong players. What did drive me to see this documentary (despite the fact I couldn't find anyone else even remotely interested in seeing this film) was a fascination with what Dick Hebdige calls subcultures. In the united states, when we use the term ethnic we usually think along racial lines. But, as documentaries like King of Kong, American Hardcore, and Word Wars clearly show, ethnicity is not necessarily something into which you are born. Ethnicity can also be something you choose. The world of competetive videogaming is not unlike any other subculture (whether it be something as mainstream as athletics or as obscure as scrabble): there are unique values, rituals, histories, and a sense of family. I think the filmmakers went a bit too far into trying to carve a clear, linear narrative with a clearly marked good guy and bad guy dichotomy such that the conflict between Billy and Steve (the two main foci of the film) synecdochically stand in for a red-state/blue-state conflict. In other words, the film attempts to mainstream the conflict rather than appreciate the unique, subcultural nature. With all that said, I have to confess that I couldn't help but get caught up the struggles of "the good guy" and quickly found myself rooting against the "bad guy." Speaking of dumb done smartly ... Shoot 'em Up just might be the most crazy fun I've had in the theaters for quite some time; however, this is definitely not a DVD film. Much like Snakes on a Plane this is the kind of film that requires the collective experience that can only be had by sitting in a theater full of people. The semiologist, Roland Barthes, once wrote that the true pleasure of cinema comes not from the private experience of sitting in the dark but from the public experience of symbolically awakening together from as the lights turn on at the film's end. To this I would amend that the most profound and important pleasure from cinema is not in the watching but in the discussing, in being able to not only share the experience but recall the shared experience. With each absurd scene, it's hard not to turn to the people around you, exclaiming, "did that really happen? Did they really do what I think they did?" It's as if the affirmation of absurdity heightens the experience of absurdity. I went to see this film with the Mini-ster (with whom I had gone to see Snakes on a Plane) and we agreed that as fun as this film was, it would have been better had it been seen in a packed theater. Shoot 'em Up is cartoonishly absurd. Much like Hot Fuzz, Shoot 'em Up is not so much a parody of action films but rather an irreverent homage that both mocks and respects the generic conventions: the dark anti-hero, the femme fatale (hooker with a heart of gold), the hapless henchmen led by the grimacing, slightly-psychotic bad guy, lots of guns and cars, etc. While the film plays around with the idea of second-amendment rights, it in no way takes any of those ideas seriously. In fact, it is precisely the film's vapid meaninglessness that makes the film such a pleasure to watch. There is no shortage of moronic and meaningless films out there but those films (like the most recent Die Hard) contain a pretense of meaning that ultimately only turns the film into a sentimental mess. Shoot 'em Up is an honest film that knows its audience only comes for the explosions and has no problems in giving them precisely and only what they want. Every ten years or so there needs to be a defining coming-of-age film (or what we in the literary biz call a bildungsroman). I was caught right in-between films -- too young to really appreciate the profundity of Fast Times at Ridgemont High and too old to be taken in by the sentimentality of The Breakfast Club. This isn't to say that I wasn't wholly affected by either film only that the impact was somewhat deflected. After watching Superbad, I envy those currently in the 16-20 age group. On the one hand, this is straight up raunchy adolescent potty humor. Simply put, 90% of the jokes involve ... oh, how to put it delicately ... male genitalia. The bildungsroman for reasons that any student who has taken my literature courses should well know, is an inherently male-privileged genre and Superbad makes no apologies for that. But, on the other hand, this is dumb comedy done smartly. There is a sincere intelligence behind all this potty-mouthed humor. In other words, it's a dirty film that doesn't make you feel dirty for having watched it. I went to see this with J who very rightly pointed out, "You really can't go wrong with a Don Cheadle pic." For the most part, I'd have to agree. Not all of Don Cheadle's films are great (i.e. Swordfish) but they are never bad. Cheadle began doing small roles in small films and lots of television appearances (he even did a small guest appearance as some background character in the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air). But, ever since 1997's Boogie Nights, Cheadle has become an A-list actor who has proven himself to be quite astute at picking his material. |
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